Differences in startle modulation during instructed threat and selective attention

This study investigated whether attentional processes contribute to fear-potentiated startle. Ten subjects participated in a threat of shock experiment and an attentional control condition. In the threat of shock experiment, visual cues indicated whether or not an aversive shock might occur. In the attentional control, the shocks were replaced by faint vibrotactile stimuli that had to be counted. The P300 amplitudes of the ERP evoked by the visual cues did not differ under threat and counting, which suggested that both conditions engaged attention to the same extent. In contrast, startle potentiation in the threat condition was an order of magnitude larger than the marginally significant attentional startle facilitation in the counting condition. These results indicate that an attentional contribution to fear-potentiated startle under the present experimental conditions is small. In addition, contextual effects of threat of shock became manifest as baseline startle was facilitated relative to the attention condition. This may reflect a more sustained state of anxiety on which cue-specific fear responses are superimposed.